Page 14 - RusRPTNov19

Previously the analysts and union representatives believe the prices set for the auctions were too high. "There is an impression that the prices have been ramped up to exclude most of the potential participants, with only a handful of market players able to afford them," the head of the Association of Fishing Businesses of the Primorsk region Georgy Martynov argued to Vedomosti daily in September.
2.7 Russia accounts for 97% of trade in EEU
Russia dominates the trade within the Eurasia Economic Union (EEU). In 2018 trade with Russia accounted for 96.9% of all trade within the Eurasian Union; trade among the four smaller countries accounted for the remaining 3.1%.
In 2000, total trade turnover between the five countries that would one day form the EAEU was worth $14.1bn. Of this, turnover between Russia and the four other members stood at $13.9bn – meaning Russia accounted for 98.6% of trade within the future bloc.
The total value of trade within these countries rose steadily over the next decade or so, reaching a peak of $73.1bn in 2012. Then the 2014-16 regional slowdown (driven by the slump in global energy prices and Western sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea) led to a sharp decline in trade within the EAEU. In a way, the formation of the EAEU could be seen as Russia’s response to the economic slowdown and a way to guarantee a captive market for its exports.
14 RUSSIA Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.o